Energy Newsbriefs Blog

This current awareness service is prepared by the WSU Energy Program Library with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy State Energy Program. This information is provided for energy professionals and interested members of the public to highlight recent energy-related news, articles, and reports that discuss energy efficiency, energy conservation, and renewable sources of energy in engineering and policy circles.

"Innovations to light source technology, particularly in the form of ceramics and chip-on-board arrays continue to help the development of life and performance of LED, while simultaneously helping to bring down cost."

"Whether you’re working alone or with help, it’s important to understand the fundamental differences between these four most common lighting options currently on the market: incandescents, halogens, CFLs, and LEDs. Keep in mind that these are general guidelines, and may not apply to specialty fixtures or newer technologies. When in doubt, ask!"

"Energy management has become a matter of necessity in states like California, less enthusiastically embraced in states where energy costs are lower. But take a closer look, and you’ll discover that energy and operational efficiency go hand in hand—and that managing energy costs goes beyond simply equipping a pump with a variable speed drive."

The first two articles in the series discussed the importance of having an R-22 refrigerant replacement strategy, help in choosing a replacement, and the process of implementing the conversion.

This 3rd and final article in the series discusses how "a detailed plan can be assembled to ensure the conversion is completed in a minimum amount of time, and the result is a system that operates efficiently and trouble free."

"The Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed a web-based tool to help consumers better understand the energy performance of building-related products. The Technology Performance Exchange™ (TPEx™) is a portal that helps manufacturers and other organizations that measure and test products easily share performance data with product consumers."

"Industry leaders realized hundreds of years ago that their processes and machines operate best when the indoor relative humidity is maintained at an optimum level for their process. They found it was necessary to use energy to increase productivity, lower scrap and environment impacts, maintain profits, and maintain costs to their customer. It does not matter if their process is related to food, woodworking, textiles, printing, pharmaceuticals, electronics, automotive, laboratories, or maintaining and preserving artifacts in museums and libraries. Controlling the indoor humidity was and is still critical for their applications."

"The symptoms are familiar: hot and cold complaints, higher-than-expected costs, etc. Here’s a look at how the retrocommissioning process should work to tackle these and other developments for your facility."

"Duke Energy Renewables’ 153-MW Notrees (Texas) Wind Power Project includes a 36-MW advanced lead acid battery – the largest capacity battery facility in North America. Duke says developing expertise in this advanced technology will help expand the use of renewable energy, better integrate it into the power grid, and make the company more efficient at serving customers. Could batteries and other storage technologies affect the way power producers evaluate and operate their generating assets – in particular fossil fired generating assets they currently rely on to supply ancillary services?"

"In its latest effort in an ongoing program to green its campus in South Portland, Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) turned to an innovative way to heat and cool one campus building: seawater.

Tapping into nearby Casco Bay, the seawater-based system uses a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) configuration with geothermal heat pumps to heat and cool the 3,250-sq-ft Lighthouse Building, which houses the school’s arts program and offices for The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges."

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The Energy Newsbriefs Blog is a continuation of the weekly Energy Newsbriefs. Please bookmark this site and return frequently. Although we will not be accepting comments from within the Blog, we would be happy to hear from you by email at library@energy.wsu.edu